Coupling multiple laser diodes together to form a single high powered light source is known and is described by Robert Waarts et al. in U.S. Pat. No. 5,790,576, incorporated herein by reference, issued Apr. 4, 1998 assigned to JDS Uniphase Corporation. FIG. 12 of this patent is shown as FIG. 1 here, wherein a plurality of laser diodes 161, labeled 1, 2, 3, . . . , to 10 in FIG. 14. The specification states that their output fibers 1571, 1572, 1573, . . ., 15710 can be formed into a fiber bundle, or combined in a fiber coupler 163 to provide a single high power (1 kW) fiber output 165. The optical fiber 165 can also be a double-clad fiber. Other methods of beam combining, including free-space beam combining, polarization combining, or both, may also be used. Alternatively, but less preferably, a fiber bundle could be coupled to a large multimode fiber wherein the beams are combined within the multimode fiber.
In U.S. Pat. No. 5,369,661, Yamaguchi et al. disclose an optical system for coupling light from a semiconductor laser array into a solid-state laser medium or into an optical fiber. The optics include a gradient index (GRIN) lens array to condense the individual light beams emitted with a large divergence angle from the semiconductor laser array to form parallel collimated light beams.
In U.S. Pat. No. 6,229,940 incorporated herein by reference, to Rice et al. disclose a incoherent fiber optic laser system which provides an output beam that is scalable and which can be focused to a target location located relatively near or relatively far without requiring sophisticated optical elements. The incoherent fiber optic laser system includes a plurality of single mode laser sources, such as a plurality of fiber optic amplifiers, for providing single mode laser signals. The laser sources, such as the fiber optic amplifiers, operate incoherently with respect to one another such that the resulting laser signals are also incoherent. The incoherent fiber optic laser system also generally includes a plurality of single mode optical fibers for routing the incoherent laser signals as desired. In addition, the incoherent fiber optic laser system can include a plurality of lenses for collimating the incoherent laser signals provided by respective ones of the single mode optical fibers. In one advantageous embodiment, the incoherent fiber optic laser system also includes means for combining and focusing the collimated, incoherent laser signals to a target location at a predetermined distance.
In some respects the instant invention is related to the above-mentioned prior art; however, in contrast, this invention provides a high-power wavelength stabilized source of laser light that results from an optical system having plural laser diodes in an optical feedback stabilized system, wherein a portion of light received from plural multimode diode laser diode sources is fed back from a single partially reflective element to each of the laser diodes. A novel aspect of this invention relies on splitting a single feedback optical signal into n separate sub-signals to feedback to n laser diodes. Another novel aspect of this invention is the use of a substantially same region of a single grating or reflective element to provide feedback to multiple laser diodes.
This invention allows light emitted from n laser diodes to mix to form a single beam of mixed light that will impinge upon a downstream single partially reflective element that will provide feedback to the laser diodes in the form of a single mixed reflected signal that will be divided into n feedback signals so that each of the n laser diodes receives some radiation it generated along with some radiation generated from the n−1 other laser diodes as feedback light.
It is an object of this invention to provide a high-powered laser output signal at relatively low cost using commercially available components.
Although a preferred embodiment utilizes a grating element to provide optical feedback, the use of grating elements to provide feedback to a laser cavity is not novel; for example PD-LD Inc. of Pennington, N.J., USA, discloses the use of a Luxxmaster™ volume Bragg grating (VBG) element for use in stabilizing a fixed array of diode laser elements. This disclosure is currently published on the Internet at: http://www.pd-ld.com/pdf/VBGAlignmentProcedure100703.pdf. Illustrated is the use of a plurality of optical beams each targeted upon different locations of a volume hologram for providing optical feedback to stabilize the lasers. Although this scheme appears to perform as described, it is believed to have some drawbacks and limitations that the instant invention attempts to overcome. It also appears to be suited to an array of laser diodes but does not appear to be well suited to a system wherein the laser diodes are discrete separate elements or bundled optical fibers. One potential problem utilizing an array of laser diodes is that if one becomes faulty or stops functioning, that single laser element within an array of elements cannot simply be replaced. Another potential limitation of the arrangement shown in the Luxxmaster™ disclosure is that the laser light from each laser diode does not impinge upon a same region of a single reflective element, thereby potentially having a slightly different response for different reflective elements. U.S. patent application 20030219205 incorporated herein by reference in the name of Volodin et al. discloses configurations and uses of VBGs.
It is an object of this invention to generate a high-powered laser output signal from a plurality of laser diodes wherein only a single grating or reflector is required to stabilize the plurality of laser diodes.
It is a further object of this invention to generate a high-powered laser having a single output beam that is wavelength stabilized by optical feedback using a partially reflecting element coupled to plural diode lasers, wherein the reflecting element may be in-line with a multimode fiber or may be a VBG optically coupled to a receive a single beam of light from a beam combiner.